19. How was the “devotion” of the “faithful” disturbed?
“Church teachers ... were, in truth, often forced to complain that in such competitions the theater was vastly more frequented than the church.”—Id., page 300.
20. What does Neander say of the securing of these laws?
“In this way the church received help from the state for the furtherance of her ends.”—Id., page 301.
Note.—In this way, more perhaps than in any other, church and state were united. In this way the church gained control of the civil power, which she later used as a means of carrying on most bitter and extensive persecutions. In this way she denied Christ and the power of godliness.
21. When the church had received help from the state to this extent, what more did she demand?
That the civil power should be exerted to compel men to serve God as the church should dictate.
22. What did Augustine, the father of this theocratical or church-and-state theory, teach concerning it?
“Who doubts but what it is better to be led to God by instruction than by fear of punishment or affliction? But because the former, who will be guided only by instruction, are better, the others are still not to be neglected.... Many, like bad servants, must often be reclaimed to their Master by the rod of temporal suffering, ere they can attain to this highest stage of religious development.”—Id., pages 214, 215.
23. What is Neander's conclusion regarding this theory?